KARACHI: This year’s monsoon season, which unfortunately has not ended yet, has caused enormous harm to the lives and properties in Karachi. The damage has largely been of a tangible nature. But the excessive accumulation of rainwater inside the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) housed in the historic Hindu Gymkhana, is causing destruction on multiple levels.

While the structure itself is a work of art — a heritage building — its historicity and the artistic dreams that the students and faculty of Napa pursue contribute an invaluable amount to the intangible cultural richness that the city in particular and the country in general are proud of.

The rains that came down with ferocious might on July 24 found their way, through M R Kayani Road, into the Napa premises. Consequently, the garden and the open spaces that lead to the main building and Zia Mohyeddin Theatre got inundated with rainwater, so much so that driving a vehicle or walking into the academy has become a toilsome task, not to mention the detritus and garbage that the area gathered in the wake of the rainy spell.

If walking around the vicinity is no cakewalk anymore, using your olfactory sense is also a struggle.

Since Hindu Gymkhana is heritage building, repair works cannot be undertaken without permission

Not just that, a visit to the cultural space on Wednesday brought to light the cracks and leakage in the ceilings of the structure; and the drip-drop on the floors because of the downpour has burdened those who look after the academy with a new task unrelated to artistic activities.

Talking to Dawn, Farooq Qasim Ali, company secretary at Napa, said, “Rainwater is coming through the ceilings, but since it’s a heritage building, we can’t do anything about it without permission. When the [M R Kayani] road submerges, the water enters Napa. As a preventive measure, we put blocks of cements and stacked them in front of the doors to the rooms, for example, in front of the main entrance to Zia Mohyeddin Theatre. While it did stop the water from entering the building, we could not do anything about the leakage.”

Hindu Gymkhana was built in the 1920s. Designed by Ahmed Husain Agha, it’s believed it was inspired by the tomb of Itamadud Daula in Agra (1628), which is why it’s representative of Mughal revivalist designs (as are a couple of Agha’s other works of architecture in Karachi). It has a raised central section, arched openings, octagonal corner towers and chhajjas.

Napa’s is just one important pre-independence piece of construction that the recent rains have unleashed their wrath on. Karachi is dotted with such colonial legacies. The authorities concerned should realise that monsoons are destroying our collective present and past with equal callousness.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2022